One way in which electric utility customers may attempt theft of electrical service is to switch electricity meters between consumers. If the consumption of electricity is known to be greater at a consumer's location than at a neighbor's location, the consumer could attempt to physically interchange the electricity meter at the consumer's location with the electricity meter at the neighbor's location to decrease the amount of electricity consumption reported by the electricity meter associated with the consumer. Because electricity meters are often read wirelessly from a head-end monitoring system that typically is not aware of the geographic location of each meter, the electricity consumption monitored by a particular electricity meter may not correspond with the actual electricity being consumed at the consumer's location.
One method used for detecting whether an electricity meter has been moved to another location is to have the meter equipped with a GPS module. After installation, the GPS coordinates of the meter location are stored within the meter. If the meter location is altered, the meter may send an alarm to the head-end system indicating the GPS coordinate change. However, this method is costly to implement, consumes a lot of power, may lack ability to acquire satellites and lacks precise location, especially in locations where multiple meters are installed in close proximity (such as apartment buildings).
The foregoing background discussion is intended solely to aid the reader. It is not intended to limit the innovations described herein. Thus, the foregoing discussion should not be taken to indicate that any particular element of a prior system is unsuitable for use with the innovations described herein, nor is it intended to indicate that any element is essential in implementing the innovations described herein. The implementations and application of the innovations described herein are defined by the appended claims.